1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to coils suitable for use in a nuclear magnetic resonance apparatus for undertaking spectroscopic in vivo examinations or a patient.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Surface coils which can be used in rotating frame spectroscopy in a nuclear magnetic resonance apparatus usually generate high-frequency fields which are not homogeneous. Rotating frame spectroscopy with the use of such surface coils is described in "Spatial Localization Of Tissue Metabolites By Phorsphous-31 NMR Rotating-Frame Zeugmatography," Garwood, et al, Journal Of Magnetic Resonance 60, pages 268-279 (1984). As described therein, an examination patient is disposed in a uniform fundamental magnetic field of an NMR system. A surface coil is positioned in the proximity of the region to be examined and, upon the occurrence of a radio-frequency pulse having a specific power and a specific pulse duration t.sub.1, the nuclear spins of the examination subject are excited by the resuiting alternating magnetic field. The nuclear magnetic resonance signal emitted by the excited spins is picked up by the surface coil and stored. This procedure is repeated with values of the radio-frequency power varied step-by-step, or values of the pulse duration t.sub.1 varied step-by-step.
A two-dimensional Fourier transformation of the measured values is undertaken, which produces a map by which the spectral distribution of the nuclear magnetic resonance signal can be seen dependent on a generalized locus coordinate. The generalized locus coordinate is established by the component of the radio-frequency field strength perpendicular to the direction of the fundamental magnetic fieid. Thus, a sub-spectrum of the map acquired in this manner shows the spectral distribution of the signal of those spins which are situated on a surface with constant field components (with reference to a plane perpendicular to the fundamental field).
A section showing the field characteristic of a simple surface coil is shown in FIG. 1 of the aforementioned article. Loci which have the same field strength components perpendicular to the fundamental field direction are connected to each other by contour lines.
If the three-dimensional distribution of the set of nuclear spins in question is unknown from the beginning such as, for example, when examining biological specimens or undertaking in vivo examinations, an absolute allocation of the measured spectra to the corresponding surface of constant radio-frequency field strengths is not possible, even when the more precise radio-frequency field distribution of the coil is known, for example, from theoretical calculations or calibration measurements. This is because the damping of the coil by the biological tissue prevents a clear allocation of the radio-frequency pulse of a defined energy to a defined flip angle by which the nuclear spin magnetization is deflected on the surface of constant radio-frequency field strength. The compromise currently employed is to equate the initial appearance of a spectrum with the surface of the patient in representing the spectra as a function of the locus coordinate.